A shower passed over downtown Denver at dusk Monday night, at what appears to be the early stages of the Southwest monsoon season.

The cool pass of rain the Front Range experienced Monday keeps hope alive that a wet monsoon season will help quench the thirst of the state’s parched mountains and plains. Western Colorado is sitting pretty, with above-average rain expected for the next month, according to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

The same is true in the 6-to-10-day outlook. While high hopes are good, they don’t water the lawn. The Front Range is riding the edge of the boundary. A shift east would be a gift to Colorado’s dusty plains this summer. A shift west would be a bust in the chops for many parts of the drought-weary Front Range.

Perhaps not so over scars left by Colorado’s worst wildfire season in a decade. Since the dry spell broke — well, cracked, maybe — on July 6, mud has slid on fire-blighted areas left by the High Park fire in Larimer County, the Waldo Canyon fire in El Paso County and the Fourmile Canyon fire in Boulder County. There’s just no way everybody wins with Colorado’s weather.

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